President Choi’s Blog
Honoring our Mizzou veterans
Nov. 10, 2021
I hope you’ll join me for our Veterans Day wreath laying ceremony tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 11) from 12:30-2 p.m. under the Memorial Union archway.
Every year, our community gathers on this day to honor the sacrifice and dedication of our many student-veterans. This fall, we will also shoot a group photo to show our support.
Mizzou is committed to our military students and their families. Our MU Veterans Center offers support and camaraderie, while our MU Veterans Clinic provides free legal services to veterans at MU and throughout the local community. We were also honored to be recently designated by the Military Times as a school Best for Vets.
Please come show your support.
— Mun
Transforming rural health care
Nov. 5, 2021
This week, I had the opportunity to speak at the BioSTL Rural Health Symposium and accept the invitation to be one of the founding partners of the Center for Rural Health Innovation.
This new statewide partnership is yet another way we’re collaborating to solve problems facing our approximately 2 million rural residents.
Mizzou has people and programs — such as our Springfield Clinical Campus and Extension offices — that share our research, education and outreach missions with every Missouri county and metro area. Other initiatives such as MizzouForward and NextGen Precision Health will help us offer even more lifesaving advances to communities that may be hours away from the nearest hospital.
By working together on these lifesaving solutions, we fulfill our land-grant mission and improve the health and wellbeing of our citizens, no matter where they live.
— Mun
Announcing…MizzouForward
Nov. 3, 2021
On Monday, I was thrilled to introduce MizzouForward — a transformative $1.5 billion investment in the continued excellence of our university. MizzouForward is a first-of-its-kind initiative to strengthen key research disciplines and help us improve lives around the world.
There are countless ways MizzouForward will impact our ambitious work, and I’m thrilled to share more details in the weeks ahead. Every groundbreaking discovery begins with amazing researchers. That’s why we’ve already started recruiting new faculty members who will help us realize MizzouForward’s vision of collaborative, interdisciplinary innovation. We’re aiming to recruit 150 new faculty by 2026 who will supercharge our research in three high-priority areas:
- NextGen Precision Health
- New Frontiers in Science, Engineering and Technologies
- Innovations in Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts
Our first candidates came to campus last week for interviews, and I was so impressed with their accomplishments and ambition. We are scheduling the next round of candidates who will all deliver a public keynote lecture about their cutting-edge research. I encourage our entire campus community to attend these presentations and hear firsthand from those who will help build the future of Mizzou.
— Mun
NextGen grand opening
Oct. 13, 2021
The big day is nearly here! We’re thrilled to celebrate the grand opening of the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building on the University of Missouri’s campus on Tuesday, Oct. 19.
We began with a vision to create a dynamic hub of research excellence — a place where top researchers from Mizzou will harness the combined strengths of the MU Research Reactor, MU Health Care and the other UM System universities to find cures for society’s toughest diseases.
After more than two years of construction, the wait is finally over.
We’re thrilled to join NextGen supporters from all over campus and across the country. We’re particularly honored to welcome Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, the building’s namesake and a tireless supporter of the university’s mission. They support the mission of NextGen and believe in its promise to make lifesaving discoveries that will improve the health of Missourians and beyond.
We’re pleased to come together and celebrate this historic event, but we know our lifesaving work is just getting started.
This state-of-the-art facility anchors the NextGen institute and brings together an exceptional set of resources under one roof. By connecting the right people with the right tools at the right time, we will accelerate lifesaving discoveries and transform health care in Missouri and around the globe.
— Mun
Celebrating the 2021 Missouri Honor Medal honorees
Oct. 6, 2021
Last night, I had the privilege to help present the 2021 Missouri Honor Medal. Since 1930, this award has recognized leaders in journalism and strategic communication, including Sir Winston Churchill; Walter Cronkite; Helen Thomas, a former member of the White House press corps; and Cheryl Berman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of unbundled. Our 2021 honorees are:
• Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, a global communications firm;
• Maria Hinojosa, anchor and executive producer of the broadcast program, “Latino USA,” and a multimedia journalist with work on PBS, NPR, CNN, CBS and others;
• Tom Knudson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose complex coverage of agriculture, the environment and environmental exploitation has appeared in numerous newspapers;
• Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post.
What’s so special to me about this award is how it captures the broad impact this field has on communities around the world. Every year, Mizzou has the opportunity to celebrate life-changing work that reflects our commitment to educating global citizens for a global society. All four of these individuals represent the excellence we hold ourselves to at the Missouri School of Journalism. And they highlight our imperative to build the next generation of journalists and communicators who have the skills to engage, innovate and produce in today’s digital age.
— Mun
Homecoming 2021!
Oct. 4, 2021
Happy Homecoming week! There are so many great events as we get to return to the in-person experiences this year that make our celebration so special. My calendar is full. I can’t wait to visit with our incredible alumni, support the blood drive, attend the parade (which will also be live-streamed for the very first time), watch our Tigers face off against the University of North Texas in football, and much more.
I hope to see many of you out and about while we come together to celebrate Mizzou and our community. And I’ll be posting more in the days ahead as the fun continues. MIZ!
— Mun
Teaching excellence
Sep. 29, 2021
I want to congratulate our 2020 and 2021 Kemper Fellows once again. Yesterday, we had the opportunity to celebrate these individuals on the second floor of Jesse Hall as we changed out the honorary Kemper Fellows plaques for this academic year. It was wonderful to come together in-person and recognize the incredible teaching and scholarship these Fellows generate at our institution.
Teaching excellence is the heart of our university’s mission. For 30 years, the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, supported by the Kemper Foundation through Commerce Bank, has recognized faculty members who go above and beyond to serve our students and enliven the classroom. I am so grateful for the hard work and commitment of all our Fellows, and for the stewardship our faculty continue to provide for our students, our university and our broader community year after year.
— Mun
155th Annual Missouri Press Convention & Trade Show
Sep. 23, 2021
Tomorrow, I have the privilege of joining the 155th Annual Missouri Press Convention & Trade Show as its keynote speaker. Since the School of Journalism was founded in 1908, Mizzou has risen to the challenge as a leader in innovation and excellence in the fields of journalism and strategic communications. We recognize that freedom of expression is an indispensable element of our democracy and fundamental to our community’s ability to discover, explore, interpret and question knowledge.
We see this important work happening in so many ways and across so many programs, including our J-School, our Novak Leadership Institute and our Broader Impacts Program. I look forward to talking about all of this important work with those who provide news and service to readers throughout our state. I know that MU will continue to ensure a strong future for Missouri journalism through its exceptional faculty members and students who are committed to research, education and an informed citizenry.
— Mun
Launching the DeLine Community Research Site
Sep. 17, 2021
Yesterday, I enjoyed attending the grand opening of the DeLine Community Research Site. Located just outside of Columbia, this site will be an invaluable resource for our CAFNR students and faculty who are tackling issues such as sustainable development and resource conservation. Scholars and students from the rest of our campus and K-12 students will also benefit from the vast possibilities for experiential learning and research.
This opportunity is only possible because of our innovative partnership with Greg and Kelly DeLine of DeLine Holdings. They imagined a place right here in Boone County where people work together on local issues with global significance. By uniting the entrepreneurial qualities of DeLine Holdings with the innovation of our Mizzou community, I know we can achieve great things.
Public-private partnerships like this help us build our research capacity and give our students even more opportunities to learn by doing. This new research site is the latest example of how we live out our land-grant mission of research, education and engagement for the people of Missouri.
— Mun
Mizzou’s transformative trajectory
Sep. 15, 2021
U.S. News and World Report released their annual rankings, and the University of Missouri has a lot to celebrate. We remained the No. 1 best value among public national universities in neighboring states and the No. 12 best value among all public national universities. Here are a few other highlights:
• No. 58 among national public universities
• No. 72 best value among national universities (up 13 spots from last year)
• No. 73 best college for veterans (also up 13 spots)
• No. 122 among all universities
These rankings illustrate what our stakeholders already know: The University of Missouri is an institution of excellence at all levels and a dynamic hub of innovation in the Midwest. Our state, national and global reputation reflects our work across campus to forge new discoveries and help our students succeed. And while we’re pleased with our progress, we are far from finished.
In the coming year, we’re going to continue investing in our research, education and engagement missions — an effort that will receive a major boost when the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building opens next month.
Thank you to everyone who continues to support Mizzou’s growth. Our university truly is on a transformative trajectory.
— Mun